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theres-a-body-here · 11 months ago

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Recieving a love letter

Part two

You decided that the best time to give it to them (pause) is during a trial

Characters: Oni, Trapper, Deathslinger, Mastermind, Cannibal, Ghostface Warnings: Internalized Homophobia, Death, some spice Male!reader

The Oni - Kazan Yamaoka

Impossible... You're both men

Kazan cannot accept this

This simply wasn't acceptable during his era

He immediately smashes your head in with his Kanabo on instinct

Gay panic defense

The evil has been dealt with, Kazan lets out a deep exhale

But...his eyes wander to the letter, still within your cold, stiff grasp

Advantages come from all angles... Don't they?

Kazan takes the letter, convincing himself he'll use whatever information he finds inside against you

It smells like you... Not that he checked

(He did)

A red wax seal holds the letter closed

Kazan looks closer

You had carved his family crest into the wax

Something foreign invades his body, something other than rage

It's nervousness

He opens the letter, making sure to keep the seal intact

For no reason in particular

(He's pocketing that mofo)

Instantly, he's impressed by your penmanship

So organized, clean, and sharp

But its contents are even more eye catching

The love letter is short and sweet

But what follows is even sweeter

A haiku

Kazan feels his heart skip a beat

He checks it once, then again, and one more for good measure

Yep, no mistakes

The loud pop of a gen echoes through the trialground, snapping him out of his trance

Kazan whips his head all around, looking for witnesses

Finding none, he pockets the letter

He stares at your lifeless body, feeling something else flutter in his chest

Guilt

The Trapper - Evan MacMillan

Evan stares at you as you hold your letter out for him to take

After a long, uncomfortable silence, he takes it

He brings it to his face, inspecting it through the holes of his mask

Evan has absolutely no idea what to do here

He looks back at you

"Do you...want me to fuck you?"

Romantic gestures are new territories for Evan, so he honestly thinks this is just your way of asking for dick

Whichever the case, he has a job to do

He puts you down without hesitation and hooks you up, leaving without a second glance

He's still holding the letter

Part of him wants to rip it up, and the other is curious to know what you wrote

He sloppily tears the letter open, reading it hastily as he walks to the next gen

Evan stops when he reads a bit more

You weren't asking for a ball slapping, eye watering, toe curling, deep dick fuck...

You were asking for his heart

You wanted all of him, hooks and all

Okay now he feels a bit bad

Evan reads some more

You actually drew a portrait of him within the letter, saying you learnt of his knack for art from Philip

Now he feels even worse

He lets the others save you without hiccup

In fact, he basically leaves for alone for the rest of the trial

He stops chasing and hurting the others occasionally to stare at you from afar, observing that focused look on your face as you work on gens or heal a teammate

Evan feels butterflies and he no longer has the strength to swat at them

It doesn't matter if he kills all your friends or if they opened the gates and left; Eventually, you're alone with him

He holds your letter out, watching as confusion sets on your face

"I'm dirty and sloppy... I'll ruin it"

He sounds vulnerable, waiting for you to respond

You curl your hand over his, folding the letter into his palm

"I want you to keep it," you say softly, as of talking to an apprehensive deer

He doesn't know what to say

Whatever he was going to respond with gets stuck in his throat as you lean in to kiss the cheek of his mask

He watches as you leave through the exit gate, glancing down at the letter in his hand

The Deathslinger - Caleb Quinn

Obviously you're joking... Right?

Cuz there's no way you'd be attracted to someone like him— Old, beat-up, and grumpy

You'd have to push him some more if you want him to accept the letter

Convince him you're being genuine

Eventually, he gives in and takes the letter from you

He glances around nervously, like he's expecting the other survivors to jump out and laugh at him for falling for the joke

He opens the letter, stunned when he sees there's actually things written inside

A blush creeps into his face as he reads, only deepening when he reads more

After he's done, Caleb can't even meet your gaze

After a few moments of silence, he speaks

"I can.....uhhh....keep this... right?"

Talk about awk as hell

Even after the trial, he lies awake thinking about it

Caleb rereads the letter over and over

You're gonna have to be the one to seek him out outside of trials since he's way too embarrassed now

"Yer serious 'bout this, ain'tcha?"

He decides to let his guard down just a bit to let you in

Be prepared to give him lots of reassurance

"Yer sure ya ain't mistaken?"

Caleb isn't one for words, so instead of writing you a letter, he makes you trinkets out of scrap metal

If you kiss him as thanks, he'll actually die on the spot

So please don't... unless you're evil as hell

The Mastermind - Albert Wesker

Wesker makes you kneel as you give him the letter

After snatching it out of your hands, he scans it meticulously

"I see you've made eleven spelling mistakes"

He enjoys the way you tense up instantly, like a puppy waiting to be put on punishment

"How adorable"

He ALLOWS you to watch him put the letter in his inner coat pocket

He would never admit it, but this certainly boosted his ego to new heights

Albert lifts you off the ground and tosses you over his shoulder

He carries you to the basement

"Stay here while I deal with your companions"

He leaves to kill the rest of your friends

After every hook, he pats his chest to make sure the letter is still there

He'll deny he ever did that if you ask him though

Once he returns, Wesker will bombard you with questions, expecting an answer within 5 seconds or less

What took you so long? What do you like most about him? Would you choose him over your friends? How can you satisfy him?

He loves how easily you crumble under his interrogation, blushing and stammering like a fool

Once he's had his fill, he picks you up again

He carries you to hatch

Before he lets you go, he grips your chin and makes you look at him

"I suppose I ought to leave you with something"

Wesker reaches into his coat and pulls out a pair of sunglasses

"I hope you can explain this to your allies," he chuckles

Before you can protest, he puts them on you and drops you into the hole

The Cannibal - Bubba Sawyer

Freezes in place and gasps when he sees you hold out your letter

He lets out a happy squeal before dropping his hammer and chainsaw to the ground

Bubba takes the letter from you gently, treating it like glass

He immediately plops onto the ground

He tears open the envelope carefully and take out the letter

He's completely forgotten about the trial

He reads the letter, shaking with excitement

It's sappy, sweet, and everything he's ever wanted

Even when the sounds of popping generators ring through the trial grounds, Bubba doesn't take his eyes off the letter for a second

He occasionally stops reading to either make a sound of happiness or cover his face out of embarrassment

Once he's finished, Bubba will stand up and pull you into a bone-crushing hug, lifting you up a bit and swaying you around like a ragdoll

You're definitely leaving this trial unharmed

He grabs your hand tightly, marching over to the hatch or exit gates and lets you leave with a goofy wave

The Entity doesn't even punish him for it since his joy was so great it made up for the lack of bad emotions from the survivors

He immediately works on writing a letter for you after the trial is over

The next time you see him, expect another bear hug followed by a letter being shoved in your face

It's messy, sticky, and covered in glitter

Crudely drawn hearts cover the inside as the letters are shaky and almost intelligible

But you can tell Bubba put his whole heart into it

The Ghostface - Danny Johnson

Instantly smug as hell

"Oh, what's that? That for me?"

He takes it from you and immediately tears it open, tossing the envelope behind him nonchalantly

His mask moves as he visibly reads through the letter, occasionally chuckling and shaking his head

Danny finds this scenario so fucking funny— A survivor having a crush on a killer

After he's done, he looks up at you

"Do you have daddy issues or something?'

He laughs loudly when he sees a hurt expression flash across your face, walking over to wrap an arm around your shoulders

"I'm just messing with ya, cutie"

Danny marches over with his head high to one of the hooked survivors, waving the letter in their face

You stand to the side awkwardly, unable to meet your friend's bewildered look

"Your homeboy is down bad for me. Whaddya think about that?"

The survivor grits their teeth struggling to keep the Entity's claw from puncturing their chest

"I think....Gah!...they.... have daddy issues...fuck!"

"THATS WHAT I SAID!"

You're never living this down

He goes around the map showing off your love letter to the others

After he finishes gloating, Danny hooks you

What? He's the Entity's favorite! He can't his reputation be tarnished

Outside of the trial, he follows you around like a shadow

He deadass interrupts your conversations with the others to tell you he wants attention, and you'd better deliver

Your love letter was basically an invitation for him to claim you as his own, whether you regret it or not

You're his now

Like a housecat that swats at others who get too close to their owner

"That kiss factory better be open, pookie"

He says shit like this in front of any survivor or killer

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calebsmuse · 2 days ago

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not me haunting your asks in every single blog you own 😈 sooo, do you write parents!au? bc I wanted to request some scenario abt how sylus, caleb and xavier would react to their kids telling u to shut up. I KNOW ITS WEIRD BUT ITS A OLD TREND I THINK?? anyway, love ya babe 💘💋💋

੭⠀ A little prank.

⋆⠀AUTHOR'S NOTES: I love parents!au so much 😭

⋆⠀FEATURING: Xavier, Sylus, Caleb.

⋆⠀WARNING: English is not my first language, so it may contain some mistakes.

Your son’s favorite pastime was annoying his father, and he was certainly better at it than anyone else. Not only that, but he also managed to convince you to help with yet another one of his… pranks.

The boy smiled when he saw his father heading to the kitchen and turned back to his video game. Not long after, you walked into the room with something in hand. “Sweetheart, could you take this—”

“Shut up, mom,” he tried to say in an irritated tone, but a smile was plastered across his face.

𝜗ৎ ⠀⠀XAVIER

Not even five seconds had passed before your son was groaning in pain, Xavier’s slipper lying on the couch beside him after hitting the back of his head squarely. “Dad—”

Xavier raised the other slipper, pointing it at the boy. “Apologize. Now,” he said, his eyebrows furrowing. “Is that any way to talk to your mother?”

“But I was busy, and she—” Once again, the boy didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence, the other slipper flying straight at him. Xavier crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on his son.

You widened your eyes and placed a hand on your husband’s shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “Okay, okay, it was a… joke, just a prank.”

Xavier gave a faint smirk, glancing at you. “…Yeah, I knew that.” He pulled you into a hug, sticking his tongue out at your son. “You think I’d stop at that if I saw him disrespecting you like that?”

𝜗ৎ ⠀⠀SYLUS

Sylus prided himself on being an exemplary father. He was patient, fun—or so he thought—and wealthy. I mean, surely his son was already having a better childhood than most people who came from the same place Sylus had, right?

And perhaps it was exactly that freedom and comfort in his presence that made the boy feel confident enough to make that kind of joke.

“I must’ve misheard. Definitely,” Sylus said loud enough for both of you to hear. You turned away so he wouldn’t see your expression, while your son simply grimaced.

“Dad, she could’ve just asked one of my uncles to go—or, I don’t know, gone herself!” the boy said, spinning the pieces of a pistol between his fingers.

Sylus’s steps were almost inaudible; it was as if he had teleported to his son’s side. He crossed his arms, an irritated expression on his face. His son had never seen that look before—at least, not directed at him.

“Don’t you dare talk to your mother like that under this roof,” he said. “I don’t care if she could’ve asked someone else—if she tells you to do something, you do it. She brought you into this world.”

The boy couldn’t hold back his laughter, bursting out in hysterics. Your husband opened his mouth to say something but stopped when he saw you laughing as well. He let out a sigh, rubbing his face. “You too now?”

𝜗ৎ ⠀⠀CALEB

Honestly, your son was expecting Caleb to yell at him or chase after him, but it was even more terrifying to see him stay silent, slowly turning to face the boy.

He froze, setting the video game controller down on the coffee table. Caleb’s eyes stayed fixed on him, and his silence lingered just long enough to make the boy shift uncomfortably under the stare.

When Caleb finally spoke, his voice was strangely calm—and that wasn’t exactly a good thing. “You have five seconds to do as your mother said and come back here, and another five to apologize and explain yourself.”

You let out an awkward laugh before wrapping your arms around your husband. “It was just a joke, I swear.” Caleb glanced at you, slipping a hand under your shirt to give you a pinch. “Ouch! It was his idea!”

He rolled his eyes but let out a relieved laugh, despite his irritation with your newfound way of spending free time. “I should’ve known.”

#lads x you #love deepspace x you #l&ds x reader #sylus x mc #caleb x reader #xavier x reader #love and deepspace

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4-the-l0ve-0f-art · 9 hours ago

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Reverse isekai... Caleb... Cat...

Caleb loved you more than anything in this world.

Or at least, that's what you would've liked to imagine if he was real. But he isn't. And you're not in a pixelated little world called Linkon City and none of your hopes and dreams about having a happily ever after with your military husband and childhood best friend were coming true.

You stared at the fanfic left open on the phone screen, wishing to see your husband in your dreams to ease the ache of loving someone you could never have while in your loneliest moments.

If only he could be real. If only he could become real from Astra knows what power and fall in love all over again. With you this time instead of the MC who seemed to resemble anything but you. If only. Too much to ask for, yes, you know.

No, he wasn't real, and no, he wasn't there to fall in love with you as you did with him. And you had your own life to live and work to do and tough times to get through on your own tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that.

So, leaving you no other choice, you drifted off to sleep as the delusion shattering ache in your heart seeped in.

It was raining. You opened up your umbrella next to the entrance of your workplace, greeting your coworkers goodbye. You were tired. Your brain was fried from working since morning and you felt like the walking dead.

The thoughts of cooking something up for dinner made you feel like flopping down on the sidewalk you were walking on and passing out. You had the free will to do that, of course, but the rain pitter pattering along with your dragged steps only reminded you of all the cleaning you would have to do after practicing your so-called free will.

The street lights turned on and you continued onward, just a block away from your home.

As you walked by an alleyway, your heart almost jumped out of your chest at the sound of metal clashing onto the ground. You froze, holding your breath as you turned around.

You waited.

One beat. Two beats.

Nothing.

And then, there it was again, the sound of something thuding around.

Without thinking, you made your way towards the source of the sound, your heart bearing in your ears. A dumpster came into view.

Something, or someone, seemed to be struggling inside. You called out.

“Hello..? Is anyone in there..?” Your voice trembled.

No reply.

You slowly got close to the dumpster and opened the cover with shaking hands.

Widened blue-pink eyes with a pair of black ears and tail stared up at you through the piles of garbage.

“What the fuck?”

The cat jumped out of your hold as soon as you entered your home, shaking off water from its fur and scampering away from you as fast as it could while you were struggling to put down the wet umbrella.

“Okay, rude? I bring you home with me to avoid the guilty conscience that would follow tomorrow if I found you dead from the cold somewhere and you pay me off by drenching my floorboards!”

You let out a frustrated sigh.

He silently watched you from a corner of the room as you made your way to the kitchen island to wash off your hands.

“Make yourself at home, I guess..” You mumbled, more to yourself than to him.

I have a cat in my apartment. What now?

First and foremost, it was bathtime. You were NOT about to let a stinky ass wet fur ball run around your home.

You tried to pick him up again but he bolted around the living room, paw pads making skittering noises in the process.

After about 10 minutes of running around, you gave up, standing defeated. You called out to him as a last resort.

“I just want to give you a bath. Please.”

“Mreow!” He protested, sitting on top of the kitchen island.

“Fine. Whatever. Live with the stink all you want. I'm tired and you're taking up my gaming time.” You rolled your eyes.

Maybe leaving him alone for a while will ease him a little.. You hoped.

And so, you turned around and sat down on the couch with the TV remote in hand, ready to open YouTube and rewatch the same goddamn trailer for the 100th time.

[Love and Deepspace | Caleb's Trailer]

He didn't know how he ended up here. One moment he was feeling immense, needle pricking pain across his entire body, the next he was in a dumpster. With paws instead of hands. And the world seemed thrice as large and intimidating.

Well, At least I have shelter from the rain for now.. Though I feel like a wet rat.

He watched the girl settle down on the couch.

I wonder how long I can stay here. I need to figure things out..

Then, he heard something that caught his eye.

“What, you don't recognize me?”

He stared at the video playing on the TV screen.

“Did you honestly think I would always be the kind hearted boy from your childhood?”

His ears perked up, all pointy, and his eyes widened.

That's me.

He watched as the figure on the screen bit an apple as lightning flashed in the background.

That. Is. Me. On the TV.

A/N: Interest check? Very self indulgent... Kinda, sorta, really wanna turn this into a one-shot fic maybe... Haha.. Ha.. But I'll have to play through all the content released in the past few months.. 😭

Wrote this half asleep someone bonk me to sleep please

#love and deepspace x reader #love and deepspace #love and deepspace caleb #lads caleb #lnds caleb #caleb #caleb x reader #caleb x you #caleb x mc #xia yizhou #caleb love and deepspace #lads x reader #lads #reverse isekai

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amalthiaph · 9 months ago

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I took an interest in The Bad Batch around the tailend of S2. It's not news to Tumblr that I almost slept on this show. And I cannot thank Caleb Dume enough for being the reason why I pressed the play button for this one. While I haven't been around for most of its active run, and I wish I had been, the last year has been among the best months of my life.

This show challenged my morals, and taught me lessons that I will forever take with me.

Tech taught me to embrace and take pride in who I am. I now think that I am not something that needs to be cured. I needed to be understood and accepted. He taught me that we deserved to be loved and be allowed to live the way we want to (as long as we are not causing harm to ourselves or to others).

Hunter taught me that at the end of the day, we're all still humans. We make mistakes. We fail. But we can learn from them, and we can strive to be better. And I should also take care of my hair bec I cannot accept that a man in a galactic war have better hair than me (Okay, did you honestly think I'm gonna be serious this entire essay?)

Crosshair taught me that at the end of the day, we really are still humans. Sometimes, we make choices that not everyone will understand or agree to. Sometimes, we don't even understand our own choices. But we can learn from them, and we can strive to be better. And that I should also go to therapy bec istg my hand shakes like hell I always need to rely on a pen stabilizer when doing my artworks.

Wrecker taught me that in this world where we can be anything, always choose to be kind. He is a great man who would always be there for everyone, and I hope that one day, I can be that person too. He is afraid of heights, but he climbs and go on high places anyway. Like him, I should also start conquering my fears. Dear Wrecker, I did try conquering my fear of heights last March 9 but I can't. I will try again.

Echo taught me to always fight for the greater good. Almost two years ago, me and a group of people campaigned for a great tomorrow. With pink flags and pink balloons, we worked on our little thing I like to call our rebellion. Sadly, we lost. At times, I am thinking of just giving up bec that's democracy and I cannot go against the people's decision, but characters like Echo and the rest of Rogue One taught me that nothing should ever stop me for fighting for the people's rights and that my love for my fellow citizens should always come first before hatred.

And lastly, Omega taught me to be curious, or more likely to not be ashamed for being curious. Learn about the world. Learn about lots of things. We never know when we need it. While I could say be good at strategy and win 30 grand on card games, nahhh, I'm not that smart.

I also learned to reevalutate myself as an artist. This show taught me integrity. I had ranted about this lately but these characters challenged me in terms of art. I knew that the creators aren't best at proper representation. While I could draw them as they are in the show, I choose to stand for what is right, and represent them as properly as my skills could. In the more technical side, I became good at drawing armors. And this little Actors AU Draw Series taught me to be responsible; I tried my very best to create and post them on time. This increased my productivity.

But enough about me.

There's something I realized two nights ago; we, the fandom, are Bad Batchers ourselves. We can consider ourselves a family, but not one of us is the same and we're all interesting, and capable in our own unique ways. We can have our own opinion and stand about something and still coexist. Like our favorite charactera, we embrace and celebrate our differences.

This show may end. No more Bad Batch Eves, no more cryptic tweets that cause us to hyperventilate, no more Bad Batch Wednesdays but it will live on, through us.

I know there will be a day where we decrease in number, one by one, little by little, but still, the show will live on through our actions, our opinions, our choices we make after May 1, 2024 because I know that all of us were changed in some ways by these characters and this show.

To the crew, your cryptic tweets caused me sleepless nights, but thank you so, so much. It is through your hardwork that we had this wonderful show. Thank you for making every second of the past year so worthwhile and enjoyable for me and for everyone.

However this show will end, whether happy or sad, I am glad it happened. However short my time was with them, I am happy I had been here. However short my time with everyone in the fandom was or if some of you leave one day, still, thank you so much for being part of my life; I am so happy I met all of you.

To Clone Force 99, thank you. I've never loved anything like this before. May the Force be with you.

#the bad batch #tbb s3 #tbb #star wars #amalthia cried while writing this

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lilisette · 1 year ago

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spoilers for chapter 7 i need to rant im about to burst-

goddamnit i shouldve known the girl that rafayel mentioned in Nightly Stroll is mc!!!

but this makes me wonder. are all love interests connected to mc's childhood/past somehow? like okay. zayne (and caleb) is mc's childhood friend. now it is said that rafayel met mc before but mc forgot. in before xavier met mc when she was young too but forgot as well. just watch lmao, xavier is one day gonna come up to mc and be like, hey! i met you before the disaster but you forgot because experimentation!

also rafayel being a merman... honestly not so surprising since there are hints everywhere.. but the childhood friend part? holy i did NOT see that coming. i thought he was just sharing an experience, NOT TRYING TO JOG HER MEMORY. oh my god now this changes so much like.

imagine. rafayel seeing her one day by pure chance and going up to her, wondering if she remembers him, only to be disappointed. because how could he be happy when the love of his life forgot him and their promise???? oh my god. maybe they met BEFORE the disaster, which could explain why she doesnt remember. and also explains why rafayel cannot find her again!!

FUCK "ive waited for you for 800 years" exaggeration but not a lie. he did wait for her for so, so long. god can you imagine the fear and pain he has when mc is suddenly gone without a trace when hes in the hospital?? its like deja vu, shes gone again, away from his grasp. explains why hes so mad when shes back.

ALSO. him dropping hints everywhere to their connection, hoping she would remember but she doesnt!!! hes trying to jog her memory!! i cannot imagine the pain hes going through holy...

holy fuck i need more. gdi game why you only let me earn xp through dailies???? i wouldve grinded the crap out of this game to progress 😭

#love and deepspace #love and deep space #MY FEELS??? HELLO???#honestly him being... yeah... is very obvious but goddamn #him too??????#not that im complaining the angst potential is insane #but i am LIVING FOR IT

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sadmages · 2 years ago

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oh man the early episodes can get painful to watch sometimes

starting critrole campaign 1 and i was warned for bad sound quality but i was not quite prepared for it to be that bad

#not even the audio its you know #tiberius #its the they spend 15 minutes coming up with a plan and they have it and then he goes okay. here's my plan tho DONT DO THAT #anyway i really like the twins but i knew i would when i saw vex had a song from once on her official playlist #caleb rambles

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empty-vessel-of-a-person · 6 months ago

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Similarities and Difference I feel between Zayne and Sylus.

Note: Just my opinion. It's okay if you do not agree. We all have different take on Sylus appearance in the game and the whole update. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS... YOU ARE WARNED.

The Game

The game fixes so many bugs. I'm so glad that I don't have to buy a new phone. Imagine downloading 2.3 GB for the new version then another 7+ GB for data and then it offloads all data of all of your memories. So the update is both has its good side and bad side.

When Infold says Sylus is coming, he is indeed coming!!! I mean the whole update is about him and the N109 zone. But setting aside the Sylus thing, the whole N109 zone is both scary and wonderful. The details and depth they put in the update are very gone. It's like watching a movie. If ever you watch Final Fantasy VII Advent Children or Spirits Within. It's giving me that vibe.

The transition from a light theme to a dark theme in the fighting scenes is good. We get to see the game evolve to a more serious side.

All in all, the update is so good and I really enjoyed it.

Sylus and Zayne

I can't help but think they are both ends of a ruler, it's like they are Morning and Nighttime. While they are both sharp tongues, Zayne will tone down and spoil M/C while Sylus leaves things as it is.

They may seem cold but they protect M/C at all costs. Just like what Grandma Josephine says, "By helping her(M/C) you are helping yourself"

That being said, Zayne and Sylus are always there to teach M/C what she needs to know and survive. While Sylus is more brute in handling things, Zayne is more of sarcastic but kind.

Sylus

I don't think he is in love with M/C.... Yet! He needs her, yes. But that does not necessarily mean being in love.

In Abyssal Chaos, M/C finds him a nuisance then when M/C asks if he is worried about her, he answers maybe leaving us on the edge.

To say I'm shocked on Sylus Relax Time: Palm, is an understatement. The first part is cute, but my head explodes when he bites our hand!!!! I'm so not ready for that. I waited so long to upgrade Zayne's affinity to get the Relax Time: Hands, just to be slapped by Sylus' first relax time. But then again, as a consumer, Infold purposely intends Sylus to be that way to get more girlies to the game. I can't complain about that.

I don't like his voice. You read that right. I don't like his voice (English Version). My sister doesn't know I'm playing while he is speaking. She says it's like a grandpa's voice. Infold should have chosen a younger-sounding sexy voice. A little bit like Zayne's but deeper. Again this is just my opinion. If you like it, you like it.

Now I know why Zayne never gets casual clothing like a t-shirt or sweats because they are reserving them for Sylus so Zayne and him will have a striking contrast with style and personality.

He is also a mixture of everyone (Xavier, Rafayel, and Zayne) Xavier on being oblivious. Oblivious because this guy doesn't seem to know how dangerously sexy he is. Rafayel on being witty. Yes, No, Maybe so? And Zayne for having the air of authority and control.

Final Thoughts

Sylus is sexy! Yes I said it... He is sexy. And women like dangerous and sexy. It adds to the excitement. It doesn't help that he bites our hands. Who wouldn't fall for that... Infold's Sylus team did a great job in shading the other guys in one swoop..

Thank you Infold for giving us more ways to earn Diamonds. I hope you also increase the weekly limit in earning chocolates.

The love interest page still flags 'Coming Soon'. I am still hoping Infold brings Caleb back. Yes, I love Caleb as much as Zayne! He is the only guy I'm interested in aside from Zayne. Don't you think it's a good and fair love triangle? Sylus has always been on a different level. Something Zayne and the other boys can never be and never compete with.

What's next? Since Glint studio is so addicting, I am hoping the next version comes with video shooting. I mean we are making a video shoot with the boys not just still photos.

Good job Infold!!!! You really hook me and my wallet!!!!

#zayne #sylus #love and deepspace #zayne love and deepspace #lnds zayne #zayne lads #zayne l&ds #dr zayne #lnds sylus #sylus love and deepspace #love & deepspace

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thegayhimbo · 2 days ago

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Stranger Things (1x02): “The Weirdo on Maple Street” Review

Just like the previous episode, this one contains neat homages and references to different 80s movies that help lay out the structure of the show and its story without overshadowing it. It also incorporates unique call-forwards to future episodes (specifically in season 4) that, when viewed again on rewatch (especially having seen the play The First Shadow), recontextualizes the entire mytharc.

Ironically, despite the name of this episode deriving from a famous Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” they have very little in common plot-wise with each other, and the themes present in that particular episode will come into play later in season 4, specifically with Jason’s witch hunt against the Hellfire Club.

Part 1: Mike, Dustin, and Lucas meet El

The interactions at the beginning between El, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas is a combination of both amusing (since they’re 12 year old boys who are implied to have never really talked to girls their age) and gives some initial insight into each character.

Mike is the one who comes off the most empathetic to El’s plight in this situation (note that he took off his coat earlier and wrapped it around El to keep her warm). He’s genuinely concerned over why she’s out in the rain looking scared with barely any clothes on (save Benny’s T-shirt), and he’s the the one who gives her clothes to wear. I also think it’s interesting that, when El refuses to have the door to the bathroom closed for privacy, Mike agrees to keep the door open slightly.

I know this is often attributed by most of the fandom to Hopper since he’s the one who makes a big stink in season 3 about El having her door open three inches (something that’s played as a recurring joke), but this episode introduces it first with Mike’s arrangement with El, as well as El’s desire for a semi-open door due to the trauma of being locked in solitary confinement at the Lab (as we’ll see later on).

By contrast, Lucas and Dustin come off as insensitive, even though that likely wasn’t their intention. Dustin’s dialogue about El, from asking out-loud whether she has cancer due to short hair, or if she’s deaf, or even if she slept naked, indicates he views her in the moment as a curiosity. That curiosity certainly peaks when he later finds out she has powers, and he will eventually move past this initial perception of her. Lucas is a lot blunter in openly noting that El doesn’t act like a normal girl, speculates that she came from Pennhurst (the asylum which would later make an appearance in the season 4 episode “Dear Billy”), and uses phrases like “psycho” “freak” “weirdo” and “something wrong in the head with her” (The latter phrase would later be used by the Duffer Brothers to describe Angela in S4, although that had less to do with mental illness in Angela’s case and more to do with her being a genuinely vile human being).

While we're on this topic………let’s discuss Lucas’s initial attitude towards El, and how the fandom reacted towards it.

I am aware of the negativity that got directed at Lucas in the first season because of this, to the point that even Caleb McLaughlin was not only painfully aware of it, but was even on the receiving end of fandom racism because of it. It doesn’t help that some of these fans who trashed Lucas in this season would later go on to defend Billy in season 2, and either pretend that his racism towards Lucas wasn’t a thing, or use Lucas’s initial behavior towards El as a justification for why it was okay for Billy to treat Lucas like shit. I am deeply sorry Caleb was on the receiving end of that at a young age, and he deserved a helluva lot better than having to put up with that kind of racist bullshit.

While I wasn’t happy about the terminology Lucas used to describe El, it’s important to note he is 12 at this point. Like any kid his age, he is going to say stuff that, in hindsight, comes off as insensitive at best, and hurtful at worst. A lot of this can be chalked up to ignorance surrounding mental health issues and abuse, as well as the fact he’s facing a freaky situation with someone who isn’t acting in a way considered ‘normal.’ The result is falling back on stereotypes and cliches about abnormal people that he likely picked up from movies like John Carpenter’s Halloween (which is referenced in the comparison Lucas and Dustin make between El and Michael Myers) and other kids his age who discussed that stuff with the same levels of ignorance.

Third, just like with Steve (who acts callously insensitive at different points in this episode), Lucas is being presented with flaws and biases that he must overcome. This is how a character arc is supposed to work. They start out one way, undergo a journey, are forced to confront their flaws, realize they need to make a change, and apply those lessons to become better people than they were before. It's why I find it eye-roll inducing how many idiots in this fandom fall into this Puritain-esque way of thinking where, if a character has ever said or done anything remotely uncaring in the past, the idea is they should never live it down, EVEN IF they have long since apologized and put in the work to be better.

I want to be careful not to infantilize Lucas the same way fans have done with Billy or Angela to try and absolve them for their disgusting behavior. Unlike those two, whose intentions were based on getting a kick out of sadistically hurting others to make themselves feel superior, all the while never apologizing and doubling down, Lucas’s initial attitude was more rooted in seeing El as an inconvenience to their goal of finding Will as opposed to just wanting to make El’s life a living hell (like Angela) or taking his anger out on others (like Billy).

Again, I’m not saying this attitude was okay. It was immature in the same way Steve’s initial reaction towards Jonathan putting up Missing Posters for Will was callow. However, it’s not rooted in the mean-spirited cruelty some fans have accused it of being, and it’s supposed to be a point for both Lucas (and Steve) to grow from.

Speaking of El, just like there was the implication El was intentionally starved at the Lab, we get more subtle signs of how she was abused: Her reaction to putting the fresh pair of clothes Mike gives her on her cheek (indicating she’d been in that hospital gown for quite a while). Her panicked reaction later in the episode when she’s forced to hide in Mike’s closet, triggering a PTSD flashback to when Brenner forced the orderlies to lock her up in solitary confinement. Her flinching at little things, like when Dustin claps in her face, or the lightning outside (though that is likely due to never having been outside the Lab before now and being unfamiliar with lightning), or when Lucas points to the blood on her, or when he later angrily demands from El to know where Will is. Even the scene of her almost stripping in front of the guys, while played for laughs, all but spells out how she never had access to privacy and was under constant watch (I can’t remember if there was a security camera in her room at the Lab, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was).

El’s situation and reactions remind me of Genie, a real life case we studied in my psychology class in school involving a feral girl from Los Angeles who'd spent 13 years of her life locked in a room and chained to a toilet by her parents (specifically her father, though her mother and brother also enabled this due to being at the receiving end of his abuse as well). She was constantly subjected to the rage and neglect of her father, including beatings, malnourishment, isolation from the outside world, and constantly being kept in the dark. It’s even been speculated he may have sexually abused her at various points as well. The dude was a real piece of work, and the damage he did to her severely affected Genie's physical, mental, and emotional development, to the point she learned not to make any noises (lest her father beat her with a wooden plank) and didn’t develop the language and communication skills kids her age would have picked up by that point. She was eventually discovered in 1970 by a social worker, who alerted authorities and had her taken to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The case got public attention and the father, who was unable to handle the media scrutiny, committed suicide, all while leaving behind a note where he refused to take responsibility for what he did to his daughter.

It's unclear whether the Duffer Brothers based aspects of El’s character on Genie, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did (If this is true, and there was an interview I missed talking about this subject, feel free to link to it in the reblogs). Both girls are abuse survivors who were stunted in their growth and development because of what they were put through. In the case of Genie, her father’s abuse of her caused lasting physical damage, including having limited gross motor skills (i.e. basic functions kids learn during development like standing, sitting, walking, etc) and impairing her ability to communicate and learn new words and vocabulary.

In El’s case, she also has limited vocabulary and is unfamiliar with certain words (like “friend”) but she’s shown to understand concepts even if she doesn’t have the words to name them. The abuse Brenner subjected El to was along the lines of Operant Conditioning (i.e. rewarding and punishing behavior, and behavior based on the removal or addition of stimuli), and was done as a way of molding her into the weapon he wanted (in stark contrast to Genie’s father, whose abuse stemmed from wanting nothing to do with his daughter and resenting her existence). Unlike with Genie, we see that El did develop gross motor skills (i.e. the flashback Terry has where she sees a three year old El playing with Kali/Eight, and the rainbow room in season 4 with the special kids playing with toys), and there clearly was some attempt at raising El to make sure El could understand and communicate with Brenner and the orderlies in order to spy on the Russians. The abuse in question was specifically tailored by Brenner: Keeping El isolated from the outside world, and limiting her knowledge to only what Brenner wanted her to know. Drilling into El that she was expected to perform certain tasks on his command, and punishing her with solitary confinement if she disobeyed or refused. Allowing the other kids at the lab to bully El because she was slow in the development of her powers and hoping that the ostracization would produce the results he wanted.

There’s also the trauma associated with memories El has repressed, but have slowly started to seep through. For story related purposes, we don’t yet see the flashbacks to the Massacre at Hawkins Lab and the events leading up to that (at least not until season 4), but it is subtly alluded to in the scene where Mr. Clarke finds a piece of El’s hospital gown in the tunnel she used to escape. AKA the same tunnel Henry/One/Vecna led her to in 1979:

Like I said, this episode contains several call-forwards, and this is one of them. It explains how El knew where to go to escape the Lab once the gate opened, and “The Monster” elaborates on WHY she finally did.

It’s pretty clear Mike and El’s interactions at the house during the day are meant to invoke Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, with Mike faking sick to stay home (the difference being Karen sees through it, but allows Mike the day off because of what happened to Will, while also telling him he can always talk to her if he needs to), showing El around his house, introducing her to Star War toys the same way Elliot did with E.T., and even making food for her. There’s even the later scene of El wandering the house during dinner and Karen nearly missing her, similar to Elliot’s mom having near misses with E.T. when Gertie brought him downstairs. These scenes have a nice charm to them, and have always been fun to watch.

Another movie this episode pays homage to in one particular scene is a 1985 Harrison Ford film called Witness:

Witness centers around a German Amish boy named Samuel Lapp who, after the death of his father, travels to Baltimore with his mother Rachel to visit her sister. Like El, this is Samuel’s first time in a new environment other than his Amish community, and his initial reaction is one of quiet curiosity. While at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, waiting for a late train, he ends up using the restroom and becomes an eyewitness to the murder of a detective that takes place there. Because Samuel saw the culprit of the crime while hiding in one of the stalls, Samuel and his mother are forced to cooperate with a police detective named John Book (played by Harrison Ford) in helping to track down the killer. When El points to Will in the science photograph next to Mike’s trophies, this is a direct homage to the scene when Samuel points to a photograph of Lieutenant James McFee, indicating to Book that McFee is the murderer.

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In both scenarios, what follows is the untangling of a massive conspiracy: In Witness, it centers around police corruption and illegal drug dealings. In Stranger Things, it’s centered around government corruption and the Upside Down. The big difference is that while Samuel is still present in Witness, the movie shifts focus to John Book as the main character, especially when he’s targeted by corrupt cops and forced to go on the run and hide within the Amish community to protect himself, Rachel, and Samuel. Meanwhile, El remains central as a character, and ironically enough is the one working to protect Mike, Dustin, and Lucas from Brenner and the Demogorgon while hiding among them.

Speaking of Brenner (who has physical similarities to Chief Paul Schaeffer, the main antagonist of Witness, as well similar personality traits of demanding loyalty from his men without feeling obligated to return it), his reaction towards Will’s disappearance and finding the ooze in the shed at the Byers house takes on a whole different context after having seen The First Shadow (or Season 4 for that matter). The play reveals that, as far back as the 1940s, Brenner was aware of the Upside Down. Granted, he hadn’t actually seen the dimension with his own eyes. The most information he got was from his own dying father (who was a part of the fateful Philadelphia Experiment in 1943) and maybe even Henry/One/Vecna (depending on what kind of information Henry willingly or unwillingly provided to Brenner). In any case, his lack of surprise over Joyce’s phone call to Flo about Will and some kind of animal on the other end indicates he knew Will was in the Upside Down and was being hunted. Not that Brenner truly cared about Will in the grand scheme of things.

In regards to Will, for those who are interested in what exactly happened in the end scene with Joyce and the lights flickering and the recorder playing “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” this is how things looked like from his perspective in the comic The Other Side:

The show already implied this is what was going on, with Will hiding and the Demogorgon chasing him, but it helps give more context to why the Demogorgon temporarily turned its attention to Joyce and stopped pursuing Will.

I am curious about the Demogorgon’s decision not to go after Joyce despite trying to tear through the wall: Was it just trying to scare her away in the moment, or did Joyce manage to outrun it quick enough that it went back into the Upside Down because it decided she wasn’t worth it? Is this even the same Demogorgon that would later attack Barbara, or was that a different one considering the distance between the Byers House and Steve’s House?

Speaking of which, let’s talk more about the Byers family, including Lonnie and Hopper:

Part 2: The Byers, Lonnie, and Hopper

I forgot about the tense exchange between Joyce and Hopper in this episode. Her insisting that it was Will’s voice on the other end of the phone and, when Hopper remains skeptical, bringing up how she’d recognize Will's breathing the same way Hopper would recognize his daughter’s breathing. To her credit, she does regret that and realizes how low of a blow that is, and Hopper, despite being hurt, doesn’t take his anger out on her, and recognizes her outburst as coming from stress and frustration over her son’s disappearance rather than vindictiveness. Add in how these two have history with one another (especially from their interactions in The First Shadow when they were attending high school and were already starting to realize they were attracted to one another) and there’s a lot both Joyce and Hopper are willing to overlook when it comes to each other’s flaws.

Hopper’s depression is hard to watch. I’ve never had a kid, and I have no intention of having one either (especially with the way our world has gone), but I understand what it’s like to be in that kind of mental state between wanting to care and yet being so beaten down by life and what it has taken from you that it’s hard not to slip into apathy. Compared to his time in New York City, where Sara was still alive, his wife was married to him, and he felt rejuvenated with a purpose, Hopper in the beginning of this show is directionless, burying himself in booze, drugs, and women, all while putting in the bare minimum into his 4 years as chief of police. Then, after Joyce's son disappears, and his best friend Benny is murdered while it's staged to look like a suicide, Hopper is forced to realize he still cares, and no amount of drowning himself is going to change that. As he bitterly notes to the woman he’s sleeping with:

BTW, note how he never references the last time a person got murdered in Hawkins. That was a clever way for the Duffer Brothers to later lay the groundwork for the Creel murders in 1959. As depicted in The First Shadow, Hopper saw the bodies of Virginia and Alice Creel around the time the police arrested Victor for their deaths.

I will go more in detail about Joyce’s arc as it develops this season, but there is one comparison that is relevant to this episode: Her similarities to Florence “Rusty” Tullis from the 1985 film Mask, which is based on the real-life story of Rocky Dennis. The Duffer Brothers have cited the movie as an inspiration for how they wrote Joyce’s character, as well as how Joyce’s costumes were designed. Both women are single mothers working to provide for their sons, both of them have sons who deal with mistreatment because of their physical appearance (Will because of his clothes and Rocky because of his Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia (CDD)), both of them are overworked and stressed and turn to drugs (Joyce’s chainsmoking in this episode and Rusty’s addictions, which becomes a source of conflict between her and Rocky), both of them worry constantly about the well-being of their sons, and both of them are perceived as being “unstable” when in fact they are fiercely determined and would go through hell to keep their sons alive and safe. In Joyce’s case, that involves going back inside her house at the end of this episode to keep in contact with Will despite a monster lurking within her walls.

On the other side of the parenting spectrum is Lonnie Byers, and his establishing character moment tells us everything: He’s dating a woman half his age (though Cynthia doesn’t appear to be a teenager as Joyce implied in the previous episode), his first appearance is shoving Jonathan into a wall before making a half-assed introduction between Jonathan and Cynthia and makes a pretense of trying to hug Jonathan despite Jonathan not wanting him to.

Then there’s Jonathan looking for Will throughout Lonnie’s house, including in the trunk of Lonnie's car:

Just this scene alone makes me question what kind of child custody dispute went on between Joyce and Lonnie during their divorce, and if Lonnie at one point took Will without Joyce’s permission. I can buy he’d do it for financial reasons (and we’ll see that aspect rear its ugly head when he later comes to exploit Will’s funeral and file a lawsuit to get money to cover his debts) but other than that, he just comes off as a lazy bum who wants nothing to do with his sons. Makes me question why on earth he even wanted kids with Joyce in the first place.

I talked about this in my review of The First Shadow, but Lonnie in this episode pretty much is the same as he was in the play: He’s lazy, he has no desire to make anything of his life, he’s costing off other people, and he’s a douchebag. The only difference is instead of being a teenager, he’s a grown-ass adult well into his 40s, and a deadbeat father on top of that. I know a lot of people hate Lonnie (and rightfully so), but the most I can muster for him is contempt as opposed to the burning hatred I have for characters like Angela.

Jonathan is a mixed bag in this episode. On the one hand, his love and devotion to his brother is on full display, and it’s a combination of sweet and sad given the circumstances. His interaction with Nancy at the school and her giving genuine condolences to him over Will’s disappearance was a highlight (and was when I started to care about Nancy the first time I watched the show), as well as the flashback to his conversation with Will and the playlist he introduces to him.

One of those bands he recommends btw is The Smiths, and one of their songs, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” has been used in the marketing for season 5, specifically in reference to Jonathan:

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I’m sure plenty of fans have already made speculations, but all I can say is I hope this doesn’t foreshadow something bad happening to Jonathan because…………YIKES!! “Why do I give valuable time to people who don’t care if I live or die?” I’m not really surprised that Jonathan has depression and self-confidence issues, partly because of his parents’ failed marriage, his worries about becoming like his father, and being an outcast, but if his perception is that people don’t care, he is DEAD WRONG. And I’m not just talking about his family when I say this.

In any case, his attempts to boost Will’s self-confidence despite struggles with his own, and to encourage Will to chart his own course regarding things Will likes vs what other people tell him he should like, is one of the best moments in the show, and a life lesson that needs more applicability (especially when it comes to fandom culture).

The part where Jonathan loses me is towards the end of the episode. You all know what I’m talking about: The photographs he takes of Steve’s pool party.

First off, I want to make clear that, in spite of what he did, this wasn’t a deal-breaker for me in terms of liking his character. Yes, I agree it was creepy and wrong to take the pictures without the others knowledge or consent, and to his credit, he does acknowledge later that he shouldn’t have done it. The only good thing that came out of that was inadvertently capturing the Demogorgon on the picture he took of Barbara at the pool, but that in no way excuses the other photos he took. Contrary to what my time on Tumblr may suggest, I’m a private person, and I’m someone who does NOT like having pictures taken of me without my permission. I also imagine plenty of other people feel the same way, and I get why some fans were upset by this scene. It doesn’t help that the screenplay contains this tidbit regarding Jonathan’s motivations:

This does hearken forward to what Robin later tells Steve in season 3 about how outcasts like herself still desire to be popular and normal (which is specifically associated thematically in the show with being accepted). As much as Jonathan has embraced the identity of outcast, I don’t think it’s completely out-of-character for him to want that as well, especially if it’s tied to being accepted for who he is. At the same time though, out of all the ways he could have expressed that, this was the worst way to go about it. Again, the reason I don’t hold it against him is because of his apology to Nancy, similar to how Steve would later apologize to Nancy and Jonathan for his behavior, and Lucas would apologize to El for his. Characters start out in a flawed way and go through an evolution. That’s how it works.

Speaking of Steve and Nancy………..

Part 3: The Pool Party

We get our introduction of Tommy and Carol in this episode, and I completely forgot that the first thing Tommy does is stick his finger in Barbara’s ear to be a dick. Charming. 😒 And you have Carol being snide to both Nancy and Jonathan. Lovely. 🙄

They say you are judged by the company you keep, and they take that principle and run with it here with Steve. Whenever Tommy and Carol are around, we see a callous side to Steve fueled by those two’s toxicity, and it’s not pleasant. I even question how much of the Pool Party was his idea vs Tommy and Carol’s who wanted the excuse to party hard and shack up in Steve’s huge house. It reminds me of Risky Business when the Tom Cruise character, Joel Goodsen (whom Steve shares parallels with) has his parents leave for a trip, and he's put in charge of watching over the house, all while his friends pressure him to exploit the opportunity to party and have sex. The big difference is while Joel’s friends try to help him once the shenanigans go over the top, Tommy and Carol would have left Steve out to dry. The pool party was for their benefit as opposed to Steve’s.

Steve’s line about how his mom is traveling with his dad because she doesn’t trust him makes me question what goes on in Steve’s family. We’ve never seen Steve’s parents (they don’t appear in The First Shadow either), so we have very little information to go on, but that line alone makes me wonder how much his dad’s cheating has impacted Steve. It reminds me of the fractured relationship between Ted and Karen, where emotions get suppressed and it’s hard for anyone to say they “love" someone because that entire marriage is NOT running on love. In Nancy and Mike’s case, they act like this is the norm, and we will see how it impacts their relationships with Steve and El in the future. In Steve’s case, I wouldn’t be shocked if he picked up the womanizing aspect from his dad. As for why his mom would stay with his dad if he was cheating on him………..there’s an episode of Freaks and Geeks (a show that was a big inspiration for Stranger Things) where one of the main characters, Neal, finds out his dad (whom he’s looked up to in the past) has been cheating on his mom. Angry and betrayed, he publicly lashes out at his dad through mean-spirited jokes at his expense during a party, and later flees to his room in tears. When his mom later goes to visit Neal to comfort him, it’s revealed she is aware of her husband’s infidelity, but is working to keep the peace, noting that it’s a complicated situation for the both of them. Given that Steve's mom hasn't divorced his dad yet, it's possible their situation and how they're handling it could be similar to Neal's parents.

I remember there was a period prior to season 4 where there was this idea in the fandom that Steve had actively gone out of his way to bully others, including Jonathan. I agree that there were instances of him being self-absorbed and dickishly insensitive, but I never got the impression from watching the show or reading the supplementary materials that he actively went out of his way to make others lives a living hell the way Billy and Angela did. Tommy was certainly guilty of that on a constant basis (something the Eddie Munson prequel Flight of Icarus explores), but the two instances Steve was antagonistic towards Jonathan (i.e. the camera incident and when he thought Nancy had cheated on him with Jonathan) had more to do with specific circumstnaces rather than getting his kicks making other people miserable like Angela did with El. Otherwise, his entire attitude towards Jonathan seemed rooted in indifference.

Like I’ve said, it’s not great, and I’m not surprised there were multiple characters like Robin, Keith, and Eddie who referred to Steve as an asshole and a douchebag (because that's the image he projected), but this isn’t the same thing as active maliciousness. We even see Steve get uncomfortable with Tommy when he makes a nasty joke about Jonathan killing Will, and Steve tells him to shut up, indicating he finds that inappropriate and crossing a line.

Speaking of projecting an image…..we see plenty of that at the pool party, with Steve smoking (which I don’t think he does again at any other point in the show) and shotgunning beer cans to impress Nancy and the other partygoers (with the exception of Barbara). Even his answering the door for Nancy and Barbara in dramatic fashion while “Raise a Little Hell” by Trooper plays in the background is a cliché unto itself. However, it’s noteworthy Nancy doesn’t seem bothered by this, and the exchange between her and Steve in that moment makes it clear she knows he’s purposefully being a cliché, but finds it amusing, which is why Steve continues with it.

In fact, if we look at Nancy’s behavior in this episode, it comes off less like she’s throwing herself at Steve (as the Montauk script depicts) and more like she’s thought this through and decided this is what she wants. Apart for Barbara, Nancy doesn’t particularly care for what Tommy and Carol think of her. We got hints of that in her discussion with Barbara in the previous episode, and we see it in the scene where she talks with Jonathan in front of them despite their snide comments about him.

This is a big reason I strongly disagree with the idea Nancy’s interest in Steve has anything to do with wanting his approval (or Tommy and Carol’s approval for that matter) or even elevating her social status in high school. She certainly didn’t give a damn about what they were thinking of her in this moment with Jonathan, or how it would look to others to be interacting with the local outcast. She genuinely felt bad for what Jonathan was going through and wanted to offer some words of comfort.

On top of that, she’s seen Steve without Tommy and Carol by his side enough times to recognize he is a different person without them around. She has enough intuition to trust that, even if she’s still navigating the way this relationship is going, there are desirable qualities in Steve beyond his good looks (in contrast to the Montauk script where she barely knew him and was only going by his good looks and charm). So her making the decision to have sex with Steve comes off less like she’s operating under pressure and more like she’s made the decision that this is what she wants, even against Barbara’s protests.

Speaking of Barbara, I’ve never understood this idea the fandom has perpetrated about how Barbara was worried over being left behind by Nancy to join the popular crowd.

First of all, if Barbara really pegged Nancy as that superficial, there is no way she would have remained friends with Nancy for so long.

Second, the idea of Barbara being jealous of Nancy climbing the social ladder comes in direct contrast with how she acts at the pool party. Barbara makes it clear at the beginning that she’s only there for Nancy because Nancy asked her to be, and doesn’t make the effort to socialize with anyone else there, all the while looking disgusted with Tommy and Carol and unamused at Steve showing off. That does NOT translate to jealousy. That sounds like someone who doesn’t want to be in the same room with these people. The only reason she even makes an effort at shotgunning a beer can (and getting a deep cut on her thumb that attracts the Demogorgon's attention) is because Nancy pressured her into doing so. This was not done because she gave a damn about impressing Steve or Tommy or Carol.

Third, Barbara’s concern for Nancy wanting to have sex with Steve isn’t entirely invalid, and it sure as hell does NOT constitute slut-shaming like some fans have framed it as. Barbara knows that Tommy and Carol are toxic people, and the fact that they’re hanging around Steve doesn’t make Steve look good. While she is interested in Nancy’s relationship with Steve (as we saw in the previous episode) it’s natural for her as a friend to be worried about whether Nancy is rushing into this too quickly, especially because Barbara doesn’t know Steve very well and has no clue how Steve is going to treat her. As we see in later episodes, some of her concerns were valid and others were not.

I get everyone is entitled to their opinions, but sometimes I wonder how much of these takes from fans are rooted in projection and bad-faith interpretations. 😒

I should quickly talk about the sex scene between Steve and Nancy, and how it was changed from the Montauk script from being a rape scene to consenual. I am fine with this change for several reasons:

I have never been a fan of shows that use rape as a plot device to drive another character’s arc (especially a female character). I have seen plenty of shows that have done this where it ends up going horribly wrong in the writing process and comes off as gratuitous, as well as enforcing the idea that this kind of trauma is necessary for a person to stop being naïve and grow up. Just…………YUCK! 🤮

When it comes to the subject of rape, there are plenty of shows out there that try to tackle this subject and either end up being extremely tone-deaf, or perpetrate the rape culture aspects they were trying to avoid. True Blood. Game of Thrones. 13 Reasons Why. General Hospital. The Umbrella Academy. Even The Boys wasn’t immune from this: Contrast the somber way Starlight’s assault from The Deep is depicted on that show to how Hughie’s sexual assault and rape at the hands of Ted Knight and the shapeshifter in season 4 is handled. That's also including how The Boys showrunner, Eric Kripke, admitted that Hughie's assault was intended to be played for black comedy. There are so many pitfalls with this subject matter that it would have reflected badly on the show if the Duffer Brothers had fallen into them. There’s also the question of whether the Duffer Brothers had any interest in actually depicting Nancy’s trauma over being raped in a thoughtful intelligent manner, or if was simply a means of driving Nancy into Jonathan’s arms while glossing over the ramifications of what happened to her.

As I stated in the previous episode, changing Steve’s character not only improved him, but also improved Nancy and Barbara by extension. Steve’s motivations for wanting a relationship with Nancy become more complex than simply wanting “another notch under his belt,” Nancy’s crush on Steve is a lot less shallow and more about seeing through the image he projects and wanting to get to know the real Steve Harrington, and Barbara has more of a personality here where she’s caught between wanting to support Nancy but also being wary of Nancy’s relationship with Steve and this new side to Nancy that she’s seeing. She also isn’t someone who abandons Nancy like in the Montauk script, but is reluctant to leave Nancy at Steve's house alone (and only does so at Nancy’s insistence), making it much more heartbreaking when she’s later dragged into the Upside Down.

Part 4: Song Choices

We get a nice selection of songs in this episode, including the one that would become the signature song for season 1 and for both Will and Jonathan: “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash.

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While The Clash has refused to assign meaning to the lyrics, especially in regards to whether those lyrics were in reference to events going on in the band at the time, my interpretation of the song is that it’s about someone in a relationship where they’re not sure if the other person wants them there, and is demanding a more direct answer about where they stand. “One day it’s fine and the next it’s black,” certainly gives the impression their relationship is tumultuous, and “this indecision is bugging me” makes it sound like both parties can’t agree on where to go from here. Ironically enough, it doesn't seem to apply at all to Jonathan and Will’s situation, where neither of them have been in a romantic relationship yet, and both brothers are supportive of one another in spite of their parents' messy divorce.

“Raise a Little Hell” by Trooper is played in the scene when Steve answers the door for Barabara and Nancy. Initially, the song seems to foreshadow that this is going to be a rumbustious party, but in comparison to the Montauk script, the party in this episode is tame. On top of that, the song itself really isn’t a party anthem, but a motivational one encouraging the listener to change their circumstances if they’re not happy about their situation and “raise a little hell” in the process. It's a big reason why it's been adopted as a sports anthem. Considering that Steve is an athlete himself, I'm not surprised he likes it.

“I Melt With You” by Modern English has always been a personal favorite of mine, and I was happy with its use in this episode. Despite being a dance song, the lyrics have a dark undertone to them, depicting two people falling in love as the world is coming to an end. It’s similar to Prince’s “1999” and R.E.M.’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)” where the singer has accepted the inevitability of their world being screwed, and is more content with living in the moment rather than worrying about what can’t be changed. In the context of this episode, with a group partying while (unbeknownst to them) the Upside Down is beginning to leak into Hawkins, and even claims one of the attendees later on (Barbara), the song is appropriate for that scene.

Finally, we have “Hazy Shade of Winter,” by The Bangles, which plays when Nancy and Steve have sex for the first time.

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This was a remix of one of Simon and Garfunkel’s songs from the 60s, and while I like the original, I’m a bigger fan for The Bangles version. It has a very eerie tone to it, dealing with regret and the passage of time over the seasons as the singer lambasts about opportunities and hopes slipping away. It’s not exactly an uplifting song to be playing during what’s supposed to be a romantic moment, and given what happens to Barbara the same time Nancy is consummating her relationship with Steve, it’s dark foreshadowing for the guilt she’s going to be feeling later on over Barbara’s death.

Final Thoughts:

One more thing I wanted to mention before closing out this review is the poster of The Dark Crystal in Mike’s bedroom:

The Dark Crystal is a 1982 fantasy film set on a distant world that, while once green and fertile, has become desolate and corrupted due to a fracturing of the eponymous Crystal, which has created two different races: the Skeksis, who act as the tyrannical rulers of the planet, and the Mystics, who act in opposition to them. The main plot deals with a Gelfling named Jen who is tasked by the Mystics to retrieve the broken shard of the crystal and return it to the original source, thereby bringing balance and stability to their world. All the while, he’s brought into conflict with the Skeksis, who killed his parents in the past, and want to use the crystal for their own selfish desires.

Given Mike’s love for fantasy, I’m not surprised this is a favorite movie of his. However, I’m curious if the themes and story of that movie could have been used by the Duffer Brothers as inspiration for how they mapped out the Upside Down.

I remember having a theory back in season 3 that the Upside Down was once a prosperous world before the Mind Flayer showed up and turned it into its personal hellhole. While I still think that’s true to some extent, there’s also the question regarding why this dimension, which was depicted as a hellscape when Vecna arrived, and even before when the USS Eldridge was transported to it in 1943, suddenly replicated the exact image of Hawkins and the rest of Earth the night El opened the gate and Will disappeared: November 6th, 1983. This has been presented by season 4 and The First Shadow as an anomaly that hasn’t been explained yet, and could possibly have connections to Will’s disappearance.

In regards to how this ties back to The Dark Crystal, is it possible the Upside Down may have been “a green and fertile land” at one point, like the planet in said movie, before some catastrophic event happened that threw that world into chaos and desolation? Just like with the Skeksis, the Mind Flayer is taking advantage of the situation to impose its rule, but maybe that tyranny has been upset somehow by Will’s arrival, similar to how Jen’s quest in the movie threatens the Skeksis’s hold on power. There’s also how the Skeksis are responsible for the creation of the Garthim, which involved using the dark crystal to splice different species together and turning the resulting creatures into their personal attack dogs, as well as creating crystal bats which act as their spies in the sky. Likewise, it's possible that the Mind Flayer, through its own power, may have been responsible for twisting, or even creating, the inhabitants of the Upside Down to become Demogorgons, Demobats, and other hideous monsters that serve it.

The only difference I see has to do with how the main antagonists are dealt with:

In the movie, there’s an established connection between the Skeksis and the Mystics, where the death of one results in the death of the other they are connected to. Skeksis are essentially the worst aspects of their former counterparts, the urSkeks, in contrast to the Mystics which represent their positive aspects. They are one being split into two extreme animated personalities. As the movie reveals, the solution isn’t killing the Skeksis, but healing the crystal to allow the two parts to reunite.

In the show, they have not introduced a positive counterpart to the Mind Flayer (at least not yet), and since the Mind Flayer is interconnected with every part of the Upside Down (including Vecna), there’s a real chance its permanent destruction would result in the total annihilation of the Upside Down (similar to how Sauron’s downfall led to the destruction of Mordor in Lord of the Rings). While they could go this route in season 5, the names for the last two episodes (i.e. “The Bridge” and “The Rightside Up”) imply that dealing with the Mind Flayer and the Upside Down is more centered on fixing something that’s broken between the two worlds, similar to fixing the crystal in the movie, which could be the key to permanently defeating the Mind Flayer instead. Just like with Jen, that could be Will’s role in this story for season 5.

And to officially close out this review, this is what I ended up getting for my birthday! 🥰

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jeontasy · 3 days ago

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Painful Sweetness (m)

Completed

word count: no idea fellas its smut that i wrote in an hour pls ♡ : a Caleb smut inspired off the newest trailer setting: smut obviously + cyborg arm rubbing you + horny reader + a lil bit of sub!caleb + no condom obviously + doing nasty stuff on a table + zero plot here literally straight to the boomshakalaka + okay maybe some light pain in the beginning perspective: caleb x female (afab) reader note: hope u guys like this too!! not proofread so im srry for any mistakes!! i love writing for caleb so much,,,...a caleb/zayne threesome is definitely coming up next :]

enjoy as usual :)

gif credit: jeontasy

The grim lab lights flickered back and forth as a low hum buzzed from the screens and machines. The computer screen sitting on the desk illuminated the room brightly as Caleb winced while turning to look at his arm, the smooth cool metal makes the droning red lights in the room bounce off and it creates a shiny flicker in his glaring eyes. He knows he should be used to this feeling by now but it still hurts him every time. The vibrations and shocks of pain that courses through him every time he has to repair the arm sends him into a fit of cold sweat and heaving.

"Fuck," he whispered under his breath as he tries to posture himself on the cold lab table, closing his eyes in a slit as he grinds his teeth in pain. Just 30% left.. he thought to himself, 30% left till the repair is complete and he can finally get into that spaceship and come back to you. To wrap his arms around you again. To finally feel the softness of your skin, the silkiness of your hair.

Caleb lets out a painful cry as the repair is nearing its final percentages and his body shakes to the humming vibrations. He squeezes his fist hard, digging his own nails into the palms of his hand as if the pain there would distract him from the pain from the right arm. Caleb breathes heavily as he thinks about you waiting for him back home and as if by a magical force, the door to the lab was pushed open swiftly and it makes a loud clang sound against the stone walls before snapping back shut from the force.

"Caleb!" you yell for him from the entrance and widens your eyes when you see him sitting alone at the table, eyes full of shock and frantically trying to hide the right side of his body from your eyes. You march over to him in stride steps and he backs up a little bit in sudden defense like a child being afraid of their mother finding out they ate candy before dinner.

"W-what-" Caleb was at a loss for words so suddenly, it was like the pain from his arm didn't exist for two seconds. The computer chimes a robotic voice to commence the end of the repairment, Repair Complete, the sound echoes through the room and then it was filled with silence, just the sound of lab lights humming quietly above your heads. Caleb sits there on the table without moving a single muscle, still dumbfounded at the scene in front of him. Why were you here? How did you get here? There were so many questions running through his head, and the only thing that was coming to his head right now was that he didn't want you to find out about it like this.

"What are they doing to you? Tell me!" you immediately hurled yourself forward and took his cold cyborg arm into your hands, tears at the verge of spilling out when you hear him wince quietly at your light touch. You bite you lip to prevent crying and look up at his pained expression, "I knew something was wrong when you stopped calling." you glared at him angrily but couldn't stop the droplets of tears falling out of your eyes. "Why would you hide this from me? Did the Fleet do this to you? This is crazy- I- how can they do this to you?!" words scramble out of your mouth without you thinking and you fight back the tears threatening to spill and turn around, prepared to go talk to the one in charge and demand an explanation before Caleb stands and grabs you from behind. You stop in your tracks when you feel his cold arm hold you, you can feel the sticky sweat from his exposed chest and the sound of his bare heartbeat pumping against your back so loudly as if it was going to jump out from his body.

"Please don't go." He closes his eyes in fear and instinctively pulls you closer, a part of him did it because he was afraid of you leaving but another part of him was just shamefully craving the feeling of your skin. He was supposed to visit home last month but clearly the Fleet had other plans for him, which was why the trip back was delayed. He couldn't bare to call you and let you know what was really going on, but he didn't mean to hide it from you either. Caleb places his other hand on your hips to hold you in place as he buries his face in your hair, as if trying to hush out an apology.

"Caleb..wh-"

"Please."

You sighed in defeat and turns around to look at him, taking a hold of his hand and you swipe your thumb over the inner of his palm, biting the inside of your cheek when you feel him shudder. He sits back down on the table but still had his head down, not daring to lift his head to look you in the eyes. You could hear him gulping nervously, not knowing how to explain this to you. You look at him softly, deciding to not push him today.

"I missed you."

Caleb looks up, his lavender orbs peering into yours as he chews slightly on the underside of his lip. "I missed you so much too." Caleb whispers before pulling you in for an embrace. His body was warm and his rhythmic heartbeats sends you into a soothing trance, you wrap your arms around his neck and squeezes him tight. You can feel him sigh in content as he pulls you in tighter, his cold steel arm snakes its way around your waist and you whimper at the feeling. You pull back and lift his chin up, his face still flushed from the pain as he tries to regulate his breathing again. You feel his fingers suddenly dig themselves into your hips and you flash a confused look at him, his breathing suddenly feels heavier.

"I'm sorry." and with that you feel him suddenly leaping forward and plants his lips onto yours. Your eyes widen and you almost fall backwards but Caleb traps your body in place with his legs and his grip tightens around your hips. He licks your bottom lip mid kiss and evicts a soft whimper from you, only further edging him on as he exhales sharply and kisses you deeper before pulling away slowly. Caleb breathes heavily as he licks his lips, still savoring the taste of you.

"I missed you so much," he pulls you in for another kiss before you could speak, your hands were now clutching onto his shoulders for support and you can feel his steel arm touching up the side of your upper thighs, slowly moving up and placing a firm grip on your ass. The sudden touch makes you yelp into his mouth, which just excites him more. "You taste so good." he huffs and plays his tongue with yours, kissing you deeply.

You pull away suddenly and he whines at the loss of your warmth before he's suddenly getting pushed back onto the table. You loom over him with dark eyes, using your finger to slowly move down his torso as he stares right back at you in shock. You graze your finger over his clearly growing bulge and suddenly cups him through his pants, which makes him catch his breath.

"W-What was that for-" and before Caleb can say anything else, you grip his cock slightly which sends him vibrating, a simple touch from you can always inflict so much response from him and he's embarrassed at how fast his body reacts. You move your fingers up again and stop at the top of his jeans, slowly undoing the button and zipper as he hisses.

"Wait, s-someone might see us- ah!"

You were grabbing onto his hardness entirely, and with the jeans out of the way it was so much easier. His erection was begging to be released through the thin piece of underwear and you can feel him throb against your palm. In a swift motion, you pull down his underwear slightly to the base so that his cock can spring out. He lets out a grunt of content before propping himself up to take a good look at you.

"We better make this quick then." you replied playfully.

Caleb stares at you in disbelief but before he can retort back his eyes shut in pleasure when you start to stroke him. The tip of his cock was swollen and leaking slightly and it takes everything within you to not take a lick and stuff him inside your mouth. You hastily unzip your jeans and leaves them on the floor before getting on top of him, your wetness was already soaking through and he gasps when he feels it pressing against his lower abdomen.

"You're getting bolder, aren't you?" Caleb coos at you with a smirk, and you blink at him before swiftly sitting down on him. You grin devilishly at the surprised moan he lets out before biting down on his lip to prevent more noises from escaping.

"Am I?" you tease before clenching around his hardness playfully, eliciting another satisfying moan from him. He glares at you and reaches out to hold your hips in place before you can move again. "Don't get cocky, princess." his eye narrows dangerously at you but you can see the glint of desire flash deep within that dark lavender gaze. You place your hands on his chest and starts grinding into him, letting out a soft moan at the feeling of his rough skin grazing against your throbbing clit. A delicious pit of heat is boiling at the bottom of your stomach as you feel his hard cock fill up every inch of you. Caleb pants with his mouth slightly opened, looking up at you in awe as he buckles his hips upwards into your body earning a satisfied mew from your lips. You grab Caleb's hands from besides your hips and pins them above his head, his eyes flickering with want.

Caleb wastes little time after that, he starts bucking his hips in greed and you giggle at his reaction. "Thought you were afraid of someone seeing us?" you tease tauntingly, ignoring his whimpers as you lift yourself up and slam down on him again. "Fuck, Caleb." you whisper to yourself and look at him with your hooded eyes. The light bounces off his sweaty body and arms as you feel his muscles flex with each move you make. You release your hold on his wrists and reaches up to unbutton your blouse, his eyes following your fingers as you slowly reveal the sight of your lacey white bra. Caleb growls and suddenly sits up, holding your hips in place as he pulls you closer and jerks into you.

"Enough with the teasing." he grunts and begins to rock into you, hard and deep with each thrust. Caleb sets a steady pace that sends vibrations down your spine, the way he perfectly fills you up and the way you perfectly tighten around his hardness. You grab a hold of his shoulders as he fucks you oh so perfectly, the side of your blouse slipping down your shoulders and reveals your bare skin. Caleb inhales sharply and digs his face into your neck, nibbling on the flushed skin of your neck to leave his very own mark as he continues to slam up into you with every passing second.

"Y-yes, feels so good..don't s-stop..!" You yelp when you feel his cold metal finger reach down to the tight space between you two and starts to rub circles on your clit. He moans into your neck as he feels your hard little nub press against his finger, borrowing your leaking wetness to draw fast circles on your clit.

"I'd do anything to feel you." he steals your breath away as he slams his mouth back onto yours, roughly sucking on your tongue and relishing in the pleasured moans you slip out.

"You're mine."

He thrusts into you again, his hard cock hitting just the right spot that makes you cruse, digging your nails into his shoulders that makes him wince.

"Always mine."

You can't control the loudness of your moans that flow into his mouth as he continuously fucks into you, never dulling his pace down for even a second. The tip of his cock rubs against your deepest core in an almost delirious way that can't be real. Caleb pulls back from the kiss and licks his lips.

"Forever."

His cold finger rubs at your swollen clit for a final time before you explode around him, toppling over the edge into a shaking orgasm.

"Ah! Fuck!" you yell out a string of obscenities that are hidden between your moans as you ride out the high, clutching onto him closely with your sweaty forehead pressed against his. As you try to calm down the endorphins in your bloodstream, he eyes snap back onto yours and flips you around on your back, your skin coming in contact with the cold lab table as you wince.

"I'm not done with you yet."

You open your mouth to ask him what he means, but before you can get a single word out he is already sliding back into you, the tip of his cock teasing you with a couple of rubs before slamming in so hard that sends you shaking with a scream.

Caleb is frantic to finish, his larger body hovering over yours as he thrusts into you with a lustful force, he pushes your legs back until your feet was dangling dangerously in front of his face. He moans at the sight and plants a soft kiss on your ankle before leaning back and starts pounding. You know the grip he has on your thighs will definitely leave ghastly bruises the next day, but at the same time it feels so good that you relish in the pain.

"Fuck, I-I'm going to-" unable to finish his words, Caleb lets out a whimper before finally shooting all he had inside you, the sweat beads dripping down from the sides of his neck as he shakes from the pleasure. You moan at the hotness he lets out, feeling all of it deep inside and threatening to spill out the moment he pulls away.

It's not until he slowly backs away from you that you smell the perverted muskiness in the air, Caleb was panting hard from the aftermath and the sheen of sweat coats his skin beautifully. He helps you sit up and pulls you in for an embrace, you can feel his ears flare up and you cheekily bites it, earning a surprised yelp from him.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." you raise your brow at him and he chuckles, moving your disheveled hair away from your face before pulling you in closer.

"As long as you're here with me." he whispers, lips brushing softly against your ear as he grins a grin that comes from his dark eyes, "Cause I'm not done with you yet."

"Not one bit."

-♡- END -♡-

thank u all for reading! all my love ♡

my other writings

#lads #lnds #love and deepspace #lads caleb #lnds caleb #caleb x reader #caleb smut #smut #lads smut #lads fanfic #lnds smut #love and deepspace fanfic #love and deepspace smut #caleb x you #love and deepspace caleb

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bowieandqueen11 · 1 year ago

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Dylan Lenivy With A Protective S/O Would Include...

Request: Dylan from the quarry with an s/o who’s like really strong. Like wrestle bears strong (or in the quarry case wrestle werewolves strong) and is very protective. Like i mean picking Dylan up and running or taking hits for him.

I genuinely love Dylan so much time to work through my writer's block for him bby!! :)

Warning: Strong language, mentions of blood/ injury, mentions of guns and werewolf attacks!

(I do not own the Quarry or its characters, all rights go to creators. Gif credit goes to @moafleco.)

☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°

Dylan Lenivy: darling boy, absolute light of my life!! I full on expected to come into this game and have Max be my favourite because I loved Skyler Gisondo in Booksmart and Night at the Museum 3 but Dylan really side swept my ass here and stole my heart I've got to be honest.

You can bet your ass during the whole Werewolf Attack night at Hackett's Quarry, Dylan will use whatever battery is left on his phone sending you cheesy texts just to check in and make sure you're okay. Be ready for your phone to ding about a thousand times a minute, until Kaitlyn finally cracks and shoves it, still vibrating, into one of the cubbies in the nurse's office.

'Hey sweet... baby-heart! Wait that sounds weird let me start again. Hellooo there sweetheart!❤️🥰 just wanted to make sure ❓that you’re still alive! 💘😖 and not ripped apart! 🤞❌ anyway love you please don’t get eaten by a swarm of bears!! 🐻😘'

Ryan had the joy of reading that one over his shoulder in the radio shack, and the groan he emitted was so loud they both ended up having to pitch over each other and duck under the table because it drew Caleb back up onto the roof.

The poor guy keeps peering out between the slats of the radio shack window like a scared meerkat popping up from behind towering rocks, thinking he can see you float past in a mist of lucent white, weaving through the treeline. He keeps pacing back and forth, back and forth sweating buckets because he's so terrified, and so ashamed that he's cowering in here while you may be in danger out there. Even Ryan's awkward offer to let Dylan borrow his earphones for a while: to sit with his knees drawn up to his chest in the corner and just breathe for a minute while Ryan kept watch, was met with an uncharacteristic sharp intake of breath and manic shake of the head.

So when you come bursting through the rickety door: drenched from head to toe in Nick's metallic reeking blood and propping Chris Hackett's shotgun in your arms, neither of the two men know what to do. But when a crash of lightning makes the full moon glowing behind your head shudder, making the pulsating umbra shrouding your head seem all the more monstrous, Dylan suddenly does.

The man starts screaming in a key that only dogs had a chance of hearing.

When he finally realises that it's you and not - you know - the 'Hag of Hackett's Quarry', and he's spent enough time bent over with his hands resting on his knees trying to catch his breath, the nervous butterflies in the pit of his stomach suddenly turn into somersaults. You came back for him. You came to save him. You care for him that much: love him that much, that you were willing to risk your own life just to try and save his.

Even though he's known you since you were seven years old: even though the two of you had met all those years ago during your first week at this very same camp, catching each other's eyes and waving as he bundled up to Chris' office with a brand new tape player he had restored in his arms, and you helped one of the younger girls pull her luggage out from the back of her parent's van, the true extent of how much he could fucking love someone hits him like air freshener to the face.

Even though the two of you used to sneak out of your bunks and meet up at midnight in the Shady Glade, bumping down beside each other on the dewy grass, constantly craving each other’s company. You made him blush one night, when you suddenly grabbed his hand and intertwined his growing fingers over your smaller ones, pointing up at the moon, and the glowing stars, not realising the little side eye, euphoric look he would give you.

Even though his heart had flipped over there and then: greedily gorging and festering in his chest, even though he had spent years stifling the feeling until he learnt that he was lucky enough to have it returned, it still shocked him to realise you didn't see him as a waste of space. As a spent joke.

And then his hand gets bit, and everything changes. It must have looked at least a little bit funny when it happened, considering there was not a chance in hell you were about to let any mystical creature drag off your poor boyfriend. As soon as Dylan got swung up to the roof: screaming and begging for you and Ryan to get him down, you jumped onto the desk and latched yourself on Dylan's back like koala bear. Your legs are quick to wrap around his waist until your heels kick up onto the slats, your arms wrapping around his waist until you manage to reach past and grab onto thick handfuls of warm... oozing fur.

With a swift punch to the snout, the two of you fall unceremoniously to the floor in a resounding crash. You managed to cover most of Dylan's moans during your fall by cradling him into your stomach, taking most of the brunt of the force. The poor guy for a moment just curls up on top of you in a state of wide-eyed shock, the side of his cheek heavy as he smooshed it against the side of your jaw. It's almost domestic: almost sweet, as he tugs his legs up between your knees and hides his eyes by turning his head into the curve of your neck. It's the same manner in which he wakes up every morning, hiding himself by nestling himself into you every time the sunrise comes falling through the dusty cracks of the Quarry's alpine blinds and makes him jolt awake.

This time, though. This time is far worse. Because then he starts laughing: a hoarse, shaking, unnerving noise that seems to seep through your throat and make you choke on your tongue. You do your best to grab onto his biceps as he starts shaking, his hands beginning to ball into your shirt as the reality of what's just happened to him settles in.

This man has seen enough horror movies in his life. If he's going to die, he wants to do it lying here in your arms.

Before he knew what was happening, he's being lifted up into your arms bridle style and rushed out towards the pool house. The whole way there, despite the agonising pain he's in, he keeps pressing his lips into your collar bone and giggling like a school boy caught head over heels by his crush. Even when your hands finally slip off from underneath his knees and you gently perch him on the edge of a sink, he's still cradling the side of his head on his neck and looking down at you as if you hung every star in that unbridled sky. It doesn't matter if you're trying to use a cloth to clear some of the blood from underneath his eyebags, or using some bandage Abi found in one of the pool lockers, this man is too busy trying to spend every second he has left as him enraptured by you. That means you have to work with him biting his bottom lip and smiling wonkily as he dodges the cloth and instead grabs onto your fingers, pulling them to his lips so he can kiss your knuckles one by one languidly. He looks so soft - so goddamn soft as he nudges his cheek against your intertwined hands, letting them rest against the side of his face.

He gets really fidgety, and it's then that you suddenly understand he's asking for a reassurance kiss: for the knowledge that you're not going to leave him. He’ll never say it outright, because deep down he’s too embarrassed and touch starved to admit it, but you can always tell. He has so many give away signs: he starts looking down at the floor, taps his feet against the tiles and fidgets his hips back against the porcelain, plays with his fingers by threading them through each other until you lean up to kiss the tip of his nose, and then he just beams with pure, unbridled happiness.

'You're so beautiful, you know that?' Even with the tendrils beginning to twist up his forearm, even half delirious with the stress of what had been happening that night, even thinking he's about to die he's still thinking of you. Worried about you. Desperate for you to know, that it's always been you. That it's all you.

'Dylan... I love you too, but if you keep putting yourself in danger to save everyone else I'm going to kick you into Lake Septimus ass first, okay?'

'Look, I've never met the guy, and although I'm sure he's lovely you're the only person I want to fall ass first onto', he replies, trying his best to hide how his eyes were starting to burn: how his eyes were beginning to crinkle with the effort of stopping his face contorting in pain by cupping your cheeks with his large palms and pressing a lingering, needy kiss against the side of your mouth.

'Ew. Gross, guys.' You turn your head to raise an amused eyebrow at Kaitlyn, but she only shakes her head and turns her attention back to the knitting gash on Nick's leg.

He seems to spend half of the time hiding behind your back! Like, you can just feel the slight tremble as his slender fingers touch your shoulder, and then the growing shadow against the lodge chimney as he jolts behind you. He's trying his best, bless his heart, even though the way he tucks the jut of his chin into your shoulder blade and grabs onto your biceps restricts you from shooting off Caleb when he comes clambering up the stairs towards the two of you.

But also even though he knows you're super bad ass he is 100% ready to launch himself, full-body starfish jump, in harm's way at the first sign of danger. Such as when Emma comes jumping out of the minivan, and Dylan straight away launches you away from him and nearly bearhugs her to the stony ground. Thankfully, you manage to tear off a branch from one of the encircling pine trees and strike the werewolf off Dylan; a near home run hit had her scrambling off into the woodland again as fast as her four legs could carry her. For a moment, your boyfriend just lounges against the dirt, shaky breath only interrupted by the sound of his wincing as he begins to flick pebbles off the deep scratches lining his elbow. Then, before you can even blink, he comes scrambling on his hands and knees towards you like a prowling predator, before melting into you. His arms are quick to lock behind your hamstrings; Dylan doesn't even bother to get up off his knees, he just shoves his head into your bellybutton and refuses to move until he can feel your fingers card through his scalp.

'Oh my god!', he finally starts, once you begin to unlatch his rusted fingers from around his legs by pulling at them one by one. 'I can't believe you never told me!'

'Told you what?'

'That you're secretly the sports coach! I knew Jacob was too much of a butthead - I just knew he was too busy playing hookup to look after the kids. That's the real tea from this summer.'

For real though - it doesn't matter where you are: turn around and Dylan's on your heels like your own personal walking, talking, screeching shadow. You have a bet with Kaitlin on whether he's managed to build a teleporting machine during his free time in the radio shack, because you could be down scouting the kitchen and he could be up looking at the weird family pictures in the lodge's attic, but at the first sound of any kind of howl he's there. You barely have time to duck down behind the counter before your boyfriend has made you jump out of your skin; he's standing right by the freezer (how tf did he manage to get all the way there without you hearing him??), completely out of breath and holding a cast iron skillet in his hands like a baseball bat.

'What?', he shrugs down at you with a tired smirk, putting his free hand on his hip and wiggling them a little. 'My mom always told me that it's better to be prepared than to catch anything unexpected. And I'm not letting you get bit too.'

'I'm... not quite sure that's what she meant. But thanks, sweetie.'

The nickname has his face burning a deep-set roseate for the next thirty minutes.

And then the two of you meet Laura, and this man's world just turns upside down. You turn down her offer to join her in trying to find Chris Hackett and end all of this for good, but from where Dylan was sitting on the bench next to the rattling window, he missed out on your reasoning why. He missed out on how you'd admitted that your sole focus: your one care now was to make sure that Dylan was safe. That you cared about him more than anything, and Mr. H could go to hell as far as you're concerned. You had to make sure Dylan survived the night.

Dylan's eyebrows crumpled when you came, cross armed, to unsteadily take a seat next to him again. He was too nervous to ask what the two of you had agreed, so he just fiddled with his thumbs and let the idea that he was holding you back darken his thoughts.

That he was a hinderance. That he was an annoyance.

He doesn't know what else to do, so as the two of you head out to the Hackett scrapyard in search of a new rotor arm, he takes up every silent moment by cracking wise. It starts to worry you - the way he can barely touch you. How he holds his hands in near claws against the meat of his biceps: how he barely lets his leg brush against yours before he jolts away again as if electrified. He even seems anxious when you reach out and grip onto his hand, his hold limp and loose as he lets it sway uneasily in the growing gap between your bodies.

He's just so afraid that if he lets go now, you'll be letting go of him forever. So he doesn't want to hold on at all. He feels it will be easier this way: kinder to you, to feel as if he's just drifting off with the breeze, a fond memory of long summers spent at some strange, long forgotten Quarry.

But you know him far too well not to register the full-blown panic behind his eyes as he dares to take a glance over at you. So please, shove this guy up against the nearest trunk of a tree, hold him up by shoving your knee in-between the seams of his thighs, and kiss him silly until all he can do is saunter off with a dopey smile and a brain so far up in the clouds all he can do is laugh rather than string together a sentence!!!

Literally I feel like this would heal him. Give this poor bby the love he's so desperately craving.

Straight up hefting him over your shoulder and carrying him away from Caleb in the scrapyard. The confused look on Kaitlyn's face as her head slowly turns to follow the set of you sprinting past with a screaming Dylan folded over your back like a snapped ruler is mfcking hilarious I'm not going to lie.

You refuse to leave him in the crane. Not even when he's gouging into the balls of your shoulders, crying and yelling and begging you to leave. To run. To get the hell away from him while you still can. Between his tormented yelps, you do your best to grab onto his face despite how forcefully his body's contorting. Despite how his fingernails are starting to cut into your skin and send blood blooming out in wispy tendrils across your shirt. You just place your thumbs up against the darkness obscuring the sides of his eyes and try to keep Dylan looking at you. To try and make him understand, to try and make sure the last thing he saw before he turned was you not leaving him. Not Ever.

#the quarry #the quarry imagine #dylan lenivy #dylan lenivy imagine #dylan lenivy x reader #dylan lenivy headcanons #dylan the quarry #dylan the quarry imagine #dylan the quarry x reader #dylan the quarry headcanons

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